Masterpiece or moral authority; analysing the critical receptions of Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993)

1766 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis of schindlers list

"...the Nazi persecution of the Jews is a perilous subject matter since it can so easily elicit automatic reactions of moral outrage, personal horror, religious self-righteousness and dramatic extremes, not to mention severe depression", (McCarthy, 1993)
Schindler's list premiered mere months after the inauguration of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, leading to a capitalising success on the American peoples cultural focus on historical voyeurism. The critical reception of Schindler's List is a intellectual discussion on the moral nature of a film through the ability to dramatize what was deemed impossible; critically selectively received with a social conscious, and a division on Spielberg's stylistic representation of the subject matter. The scholarship on Schindler's List only reaches one shared thesis that of its transitional nature in his cinematic career into a more self-styled seriousness with arching the blockbuster with sober artistic work (Grainge, Jancovich, & Monteith, 2012). Critical reception of Spielberg's work comments on the true nature of its testimony in memorial to the Holocaust with appropriate restraint or typical emotional manipulation, combined with arguments of the nature of film is artistic or entertaining. Temporal and spatial variations don't seem to affect the critics review, it appears to be more the view of Spielberg as an auteur and also their comfort in exploring such a sensitive historical memory. Deconstruction of the reception will discuss the stylistic nature of the film with a controversial documented cinematography, alongside Schindler's List's place among other works in regards to the subject of the Holocaust and Spielberg's handling of the digestible.
Immediately and most appar...

... middle of paper ...

...a film it is not simply a work of art, it is a story of a historical tragedy that would deem economically successful; Schindler's List is about 200 Jews who lived, while the Holocaust is about 6 million that died, the film required a Hollywood nature around it in order to be popular and consumable (Kubrick, 2000).

Works Cited

Grainge, P., Jancovich, M., & Monteith, S. (2012). Film Histories; An introduction and reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Heilman, J. (2004, May). Schindler's List. Retrieved March 2014, from Movie Martyr: www.moviemartyr.com
Kauffman, S. (1993, December 10). A New Spielberg; and Others. New Republic .
Kubrick, S. (2000).
Malcolm, D. (1994, February 17). Schindler's List. Guardian .
McCarthy, T. (1993, November 19). Review of Schindler's List. Variety .
Novick, P. (2000). The Holocaust In American Life. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Show More
Related

  • Questions Raised about the Holocaust and Nazi Germany in Schindler's Gift

    575 Words  | 2 Pages

    Stephen Speilberg's Academy Award winning film 'Schindler's List' raised many questions about the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. The film's focus centered on one specific Jewish community, and the impact one man, Oskar Schindler, had upon it. Schindler's involvement with the Jews started with the birth of a business venture. An enterprising Nazi, Schindler saw an opportunity. In exchange for money to start his business, (a ceramics factory), he could offer capable Jews an escape from the deathly work camps. Throughout the course of the war however, Schindler's motives and motivation both change; once a greedy, adulterous, socialite Nazi, Schindler transforms into a kind, caring, monogamous humanitarian.

    Read More

  • Film Review Of Schindler's List, By Steven Spielberg

    814 Words  | 2 Pages

    Schindler's List, by Steven Spielberg is an award-winning masterpiece - a movie which portrays the shocking and nightmarish holocaust in a three-hour long epic. The documentary touch re-creates a dark, frightening period during World War II, when Jews in Nazi-occupied Krakow were first deprived off , of their businesses and homes, then placed in ghettos and were then forced to labor for no consideration in camps in Plaszow, and finally they were resettled in concentration camps for execution. The violence and brutality of Nazi’s treatment towards Jews is a series of horrific incidents that are brilliantly showcased.

    Read More

  • Ben-Hur

    748 Words  | 2 Pages

    When viewed through the lens of history, the events in this epic film can be seen as mirroring the oppression, pressure to assimilate, governmental betrayal, and ultimate struggle to find closure experienced by many Jewish people during and after the reign of the Nazis in Germany, which ended in 1945, and the investigations of the House of Un-American Activities in the United States, the last of which was held in 1951. This movie, and its call for forgiveness in a move toward unity with enemy factions was possibly a plea for those who had experienced so much pain at the hands of those they had once called friends to forgo seething passions and move forward in peace.

    Read More

  • Film Analysis of All That Heaven Allows

    1798 Words  | 4 Pages

    BIBLIOGRAPHY An Introduction to Film Studies Jill Nelmes (ed.) Routledge 1996 Anatomy of Film Bernard H. Dick St. Martins Press 1998 Key Concepts in Cinema Studies Susan Hayward Routledge 1996 Teach Yourself Film Studies Warren Buckland Hodder & Stoughton 1998 Interpreting the Moving Image Noel Carroll Cambridge University Press 1998 The Cinema Book Pam Cook (ed.) BFI 1985 FILMOGRAPHY All That Heaven Allows Dir. Douglas Sirk Universal 1955 Being There Dir. Hal Ashby 1979

    Read More

  • Schindler’s List

    607 Words  | 2 Pages

    Schindler’s List is a significant teaching tool in high school across the nation. There are far too many places worldwide that hate, intolerance and genocide still exist. The movie is not only about Jews or Germans it is about humans as a whole. This movie is about racial hatred and how many people still practice it nowadays. With the hope that Schindler’s List will awaken an awareness of such evil and inspire this generation and future generation to seek an end to racism. One aspect of how good and evil are portrayed in a number of different ways throughout the movie. This movie will remind high school students that there is hope no matter how difficult life may get, hatred still exist and how evil people are. I strongly agree that every American high school students should be required to watch Schindler’s List.

    Read More

  • Overused Tropes in Holocaust and Civil Rights Films

    1433 Words  | 3 Pages

    Last semester my documentary production professor told my classmates and I to avoid making films that were too much like Holocaust or civil rights films. This really struck me as an almost cold statement, however this semester in both this class and the film and Holocaust class that I took I began to understand what he meant. After reading much of Aaron Kerner’s book I saw even more, it wasn’t a statement on the subject matter but the filmic techniques that have been overused in the genres. The most burnt out are the tropes within each film; like the crafty jew trope, the jew as a victim, or as a hero, and the usage of naziploitation. These are all found in films revolving around the Holocaust and the film Europa Europa (Agnieska Holland, 1990)

    Read More

  • Schindler's Use Of Film Symbolism In The Film

    1766 Words  | 4 Pages

    Spielberg decided to shoot the movie in black and white for the entirety of the film to enhance scenes and foreshadow good and evil. He does, however, use color for the girl in the red coat which symbolizes the turning point for Schindler. The candles are also used as a symbol. The smoke that started in the beginning would later become the smoke from the trains and crematoriums, representing Jewish life and Jewish death. He also uses a Nazi protagonist which goes against what a Holocaust film should have as the main character. Schindlers list is an important one, and his story should always be remembered. He started off as a war profiteer and then became a savior for 1,100 Jews. Stern was beside Schindler during the War and he helped change who he was for the better. Stern is the only main Jewish character in the film. Goeth helps us understand Nazi ideology throughout the course of the film and we see in many instances how unaffected he was with each Jew that he killed. It also shows his inner struggle because of his Jewish maid but ends up beating her and letting her go with Schindler because he became more interested in money. The film touches on many important parts of the Holocaust including race. We see this when Schindler goes to jail for kissing a Jew, and how he was told that it was against the law. To further credit this movie, the use of the real Schindlers Jews at the end help increase

    Read More

  • Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards

    1187 Words  | 3 Pages

    These ideas all correlate with how we view World War II history and how Inglourious Basterds muddles our previous thoughts on how these events occurred. Many Americans have watered down the depiction of Jewish oppression during Nazi reign to swiftly round up concentration camps. What Quentin Tarantino and the Jewish film community wanted to illustrate through this film is how this is an incorrect overgeneralization. Inglourious Basterds illustrates more realistic Jewish life during Nazi reign and the constant terror they faced. This oppression was far more personal, intimate, and cordial yet brutal altercations invoked through self-defense and hatred.

    Read More

  • Schindler's List

    1457 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Holocaust was a time of horrible cruelty. Millions of people were forced into atrocious conditions and suffered unspeakable treatment. They were treated worse than cattle, losing their identity. The German people after the war also lost their individual identities. Even though most of the population had no idea what was going on, they were blamed and stereotyped as monsters for the actions of a small group. Schindler’s List (1993), directed by Steven Spielberg, tells the story of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) who was different than the Nazi party, saving thousands of Jews from slaughter during the Holocaust and giving them back their identities. Steven Spielberg, through the use of symbolism, wide angle, long angle, and handheld camera shots, and black and white filming, shows the importance of individualization in contrast to the dehumanization of the Holocaust, and how that distinction caused extreme cases of death and chaos. Though the movie does alter Oskar Schindler to make him more like the stereotypical protagonist, it is still a good historical movie because the outcome is the same: over 1,000 Jewish men, women, and children saved because of Schindler’s actions.

    Read More

  • Classical and Post-Classical Hollywood Cinema

    2472 Words  | 5 Pages

    During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.

    Read More

  • Hitler And The Nazi Party

    881 Words  | 2 Pages

    People that survived the Holocaust made it their mission to spread the word about their lives and what they witnessed during that time.Because the Holocaust was so widely known and televised, many people made movies, books and other tributes about the holocaust, which also made it more widely known. Many people would debate about the way it was televised being inappropriate. But at the end of the day the main point of the Holocaust came across to the public.Which was that Hitler try to turn the world against people’s ethnicities at which he did not like.

    Read More

  • Micro Issues In Schindler's List

    694 Words  | 2 Pages

    This film was very successful in achieving that purpose. To being with, Spielberg had a clear goal of what emotions he had about the subject in this movie. He wanted it to be “an act of remembrance for the public record” and a legacy of Jewish culture that would benefit the community as a whole. Spielberg takes over three hours to accomplish his goal. He uses the time to focus on what individual, Oskar Schindler, and to show the Holocaust from Oskar’s perspective. Spielberg does not use trite appeals such as scenes of Hitler to conjure up fear in the audience. Instead, he approaches the subject matter in a very honest way. There is a sense of sincerity throughout the film. The immense amount of character development in Schindler’s List allows for Spielberg to very effectively communicate his feelings about the subject matter to the masses as was his

    Read More

  • Boy In The Striped Pajamas

    669 Words  | 2 Pages

    In order to give out the true perspective of the Holocaust, filmmakers should factualize,not personalize the experience by trivializing, through communicating with type of art, making art personalized rather than having sources or materials to make it factual. Make sure that they can communicate through educating the people, more than trying to entertain the people. When making Holocaust films, filmmakers should avoid not using sources or references because it could lead to misinterpretation to the audience. They should also avoid lack of emotion. Emotion provides sympathy to the audience, making the audience feel for the characters.

    Read More

  • The Influence Of Film And Memory Of The Holocaust

    335 Words  | 1 Pages

    Feature film plays a central, but controversial, role in our perception and memory of the Holocaust. Baron’s point that people today are almost all non-witnesses to the events of the Holocaust demonstrates the gap in collective memory, which is exacerbated by the fact that there were few survivors to the atrocities in the Jewish community. Essentially, film has become a medium for perpetuating the memory of the atrocities of the Holocaust, by reaching audiences who did not experience it.

    Read More

  • Oskar Schindler Hero And Heroism

    1493 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Holocaust is often considered one of the darkest and most heinous periods in modern history, however there are numerous accounts of heroism and selfless charity to emerge from the ashes. Despite the Nazi regime’s stranglehold on European affairs during a large part of the second world war, their radical and racially charged agenda was not universally accepted amongst German citizens and Nazi officials. The fear of strict punishment at the hands of the SS squashed popular outcry over the atrocities, but it did not stop the heroic acts of a few compassionate and unassuming individuals. One such hero is Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who spearheaded an effort to protect his Jewish factory workers from the uncertain fate of the the Jewish ghettos and concentration camps. When asked about his motives Schindler reported, "I just couldn't stand by and see people destroyed. I did what I could, what I had to do, what my conscience told me I must do" (Schindler). Though Schindler was himself a registered member of the Nazi party he would would ultimately be responsible for saving the lives of some twelve hundred Jews by wars end. However, the original twelve hundred are merely a portion of Schindler’s lasting impact and the real significance is in the “nearly 7,000 living descendants of Schindlerjuden (Schindler’s Jews)” (Sandweiss). Thus, Schindler’s legacy was cemented in his defiance and in his preservation of future generations of Jews around the world.

    Read More

More about Masterpiece or moral authority; analysing the critical receptions of Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993)

Open Document